Saints Joachim & Anne July 26th

 

Today is the memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne. St. Anne was the spouse of St. Joachim and was chosen by God to be the mother of Mary, His own blessed Mother on earth. They were both of the royal house of David, and their lives were wholly occupied in prayer and good works. One thing only was wanting to their union—they were childless, and this was held as a bitter misfortune and disgrace among the Jews.

But, one day when Joachim went to the temple to offer a sacrifice to God, the priests refused his offering. Joachim was hurt because his sacrifice was not accepted, but he remembered Abraham and Sarah did not have their son Isaac until they were old. Therefore, Joachim decided to go into the desert to fast and pray for forty days. And while he was in the desert, Anne also began to pray that God would help them to have a child.

While in the desert, an angel appeared to Joachim and told him that he and his wife would give birth to a girl, and that she would be blessed by God. About the same time, the angel also appeared to Anne also telling her that she and her husband would conceive a child. When Joachim returned home, he met his wife at the "Golden Gate" of Jerusalem and both shared with each other their happy news.

We can see how the couple persevered in prayer and how they believed God would answer them and give them a child. How blessed they were to have a child, and their child was no ordinary one.

When the came together, and their child, the Virgin Mary, was conceived in Anne’s womb, Mary was conceived without original sin.

Even though Anne was an aged woman, Mary was born. With the birth of Mary, elderly Anne began a new life: she watched daughter’s every movement with reverent tenderness and felt herself sanctified by the presence of her Immaculate child.

But Anne vowed her daughter to God-- and to God Anne gave her back. Therefore, when Mary was three years old, Anne and Joachim led Her up the Temple steps, they saw her pass by herself into the inner sanctuary. At this moment, Mary consecrated Herself to God, as a perpetual virgin. It’s believed while She lived and worked in the temple an angel fed Our Lady.

Blessed Catherine Emmerich had a vision of Mary serving in the temple. She said, “I saw the Blessed Virgin in the Temple, ever progressing in learning, prayer, and work. Sometimes I saw Her in the women’s dwelling with the other young girls, sometimes alone in Her little room. She worked, wove, and knitted narrow strips of stuff on long rods for the service of the Temple. She washed the cloths and cleansed the pots and pans. I often saw Her in prayer and meditation.”

When her daughter entered the Temple, Anne was left childless in her lone old age and deprived of her purest earthly joy just when she needed it most. But, she humbly adored the Divine Will and began again to watch and pray.

St. Anne is glorious among the Saints, not only as the mother of Mary, but because she gave Mary back to God. We can learn from her to reverence a divine vocation as the highest privilege, and to sacrifice every natural tie, however holy, at the call of God.

From the very early Church, there has been devotion to the parents of the Virgin Mary, and many have had prayers answered through their intercession, most especially prayers to conceive a child. But, Joachim and Anne have answered many other prayers.

St. Charles of Sezze, was an Italian Franciscan saint, who lived in the 1600’s. Once during a plague, he carried in procession an image of St. Anne through the city causing the plague to immediately subside.

Today, let us ask the grandparents of Jesus, Joachim and Anne to help us grow in our love of the Virgin Mary and let us pray for all living and deceased grandparents.

And let us praise saints Joachim and Anne for bringing into the world, their daughter, who was conceived without original sin. Let us praise and thank Joachim and Anne for giving the world the Perpetual Virgin. Let us praise and thank Joachim and Anne, for giving us their child, who will be the Mother of God and our Mother. May their glory be raised forever in heaven because their grandchild, is the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, the Lord.